French skills to be tested in Tory debates

Race events in Moncton, Quebec City

OTTAWA • The strength and weakness of Conservative leadership candidates in speaking French will come to the fore in coming weeks as the hopefuls prepare for a bilingual debate in Moncton, N.B., and an all-French showdown in Quebec City.

The debates will showcase — for better or worse — the ability of the dozen Conservative leadership candidates to speak French.

The debates also pose a larger and critical question for Conservative party members and candidates: what level of French is good enough to be leader and potentially the next prime minister of Canada?

Everyone will get a chance to grade Tory leadership candidates on their Frenchspeaking abilities at the Dec. 6 bilingual debate in Moncton, the second of five party-sanctioned debates, and even more so at the Jan. 17 all-French faceoff in Quebec City.

‘There’s no way to fake it,” Peter MacKay, a Conservative party elder statesman, said about debating in French. “It’s a bit like boxing. When you get in the ring you have to perform. Or you get on the field or on the ice, it will come out.”

The next two debates could be a critical turning point in the leadership race for some candidates. Those who struggle in French will almost certainly have that weakness exposed.

Quebec MPs Maxime Bernier and Steven Blaney, Saskatchewan MP and former speaker Andrew Scheer, and former Ontario MP and cabinet minister Chris Alexander are all fluent in French. Current Ontario MP Michael Chong is also very strong in French.

“It is very important (to speak French) and I would go as far to say more important than ever,” Alexander said.

“The national leader of Canada needs to be able to talk to this quarter of the population whose first language is French without an interpreter.”

Alexander believes electing a federal political party leader and prime minister who speaks fluent French is a national unity issue.

It’s also critical for the electability of Conservatives in Quebec, where the party actually doubled its seats in the last election, amid stinging losses in Atlantic Canada and Ontario, he said.

Leadership hopefuls agree it’s important to be able to speak both of Canada’s official languages.

However, some candidates differ on the degree of French that is needed.

A handful have a good base and are functional in French but acknowledge they could use some work on their language skills, including Ontario MP Erin O’Toole and former Vancouver-area MP Andrew Saxton.

Lisa Raitt and Kellie Leitch both have difficulty communicating in French, but have been taking lessons as has Calgary Tory MP Deepak Obhrai who doesn’t speak French.

A spokesman for leadership hopeful Daniel Lindsay, a Winnipeg physician who’s new to the race, said the candidate speaks “good” French, although it remains unclear how comfortable he is with the language.

Brad Trost said “it’s for the membership to decide” what level of French is needed. “Different members will come to different opinions on that. I don’t think anyone disagrees more is always better than less,” he said, noting he speaks some French.

“There’s no one defining thing which either blocks someone from running or puts them over the top. But it becomes a whole part of the package of who you are.”

All the leadership candidates are expected to attend the debates. Those who don’t Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier is one of the hopefuls who is fluent in French.